Universal electric connector

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to an electric connector comprising two electrically mating bases, called body and cap. The improvement comprises that each base is being made with more than two like, peripherally unevenly spaced cavities for holding contacts, wherein these contacts are all interchangeable brushes within the connector body and all interchangeable prongs within the cap. This allows a three or four cavity connector to be used with a two pole set as well as with a three pole set of contacts, without permitting any mismating of poles as would occur with even spacing. This mating guard may be still improved by a new locking bolt that aligns the bases before mating. After mating the bolt secures the bases against accidental separation. The proposed use of a single type base mold, brush and prong represents the utmost in standardization of parts.

United States Patent Spaderna [5 UNIVERSALELECTRIC CONNECTOR [72]Inventor: Conan H. Spaderna, 404 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Conn.06105 [22] Filed: March 8, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 121,723

[52 US. Cl ..339/91 R, 339/184 M, 339/192 R [51] Int. Cl. ..1 .1101!13/54 [58] Field of Search ..339/74, 75,38, 40, 42, 91, 339/71, 184,185, 192, 193; 285/317 [56] References Cited 7 UNITED STATES PATENTS3,023,394 2/1962 Hubbell ..339/186 2,930,019 3/1960 3,112,973 12/1963Von Holtz ..339/14 R 2,953,767, 9/1960 Jackson et a1. ..339/92 2,384,2679/1945 Andersen 123/328 FOREIGN PATENTS ORAPPLICATIONS 119,769 11/1930Austria ..339/185 648,241 10/1962 Italy ..339/40 [4s] Oct. 17, 197296,760 11/1922 Switzerland ..339/185 Primary ExaminerV-Marvin A.Champion Assistant Examiner-Robert A. I-Iafer s71 ABSTRACT Thisinvention relates to an electric connector comprising two electricallymating bases, called body and cap. The improvement comprises that eachbase is being made with more than two like, peripherally unevenlyspaced/cavities for holding contacts, wherein these contacts are allinterchangeable brushes within the connector body and allinterchangeable prongs within the cap. This allows athree or four'cavityconnector to be used with atwo pole set as well as with a three pole setof contacts, without permitting any mismating of poles as would occurwith evenspacing. This mating guard may be still improved by a newlocking bolt that aligns the bases before mating. After mating the boltsecures the bases against accidental separation. The proposed use of asingle type base mold, brush and prong represents the utmost instandardization of parts.

3 Claims, 12 Drawing Figures UNIVERSAL ELECTRIC CONNECTOR In connectorswith two mating bases, having more than two cavities in each base, themain feature of this invention is the use of like brushes in theconnector body and of like prongs in the cap, however, with unevenperipheral spacing of the cavities. Thus far, uneven peripheral spacingof contacts in connectors was not deemed sufficient precaution againstinserting prongs into slots of the connector body not intended for them.Therefore not matching contacts were made of a different size. Also,slots of different size had to be provided for their passing through.All configurations with peripherally arranged contacts, proposed by theNational Electrical Manufacturers Association, such astho'se inpublication No. WD 1968, show contacts of many radii, and differentsizes on the same radius; further there is an unattractive radialcontact addition, called a dog foot, in every connector with more thantwo cavities. All this can hardly be considered top economy. To avoidsuch dog feet, according to this invention, means to reduce the outsidediameter of the connector, while keeping the same safe distance betweencontact and perimeter. Special tooling is not needed for contacts oflike peripheral size.

Forced mismating of the polarities can be further forestalled by matemeans, such as center pin and bushing, differently made and used forvarious volt and ampere ratings or for equipment grounding and systemgrounding. Plugging becomes impossible if mate pin butts against matepin or bushing against bushing or by narrower borings, barring widerpins. Besides being mate guards, the mate means may serve forconventional grounding; yet, their molded cavity may be the same formany such means.

Another feature of the invention is alocking bolt that aligns theconnectorbases for mating and secures them against accidentalseparation, caused by shocks in car or plane. The bolt is seated in athrough hole near the perimeter of one base and fits into lengthwise keygrooves of the other base and of two terminal covers. If there are noterminal covers, the locking bolt may be made shorter by the length ofboth covers. Perpendicular arms of the bolt may be turned over theoutermost faces of the connector and fall into catches, provided there.

The invention is shown in the drawing but not limited to drawn details.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a connector body;

FIG. 2 is a side view of a section thereof on line A- A through FIG. 1,looking from the right of FIG. 1, with a terminal cover;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the terminal cover in FIG. 2, looking from theright of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a front view of a connector cap;

FIG. 5 is a side view thereof in a section on line B B through FIG. 4,seen from the right of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an end view thereof, seen from the right of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a front view of a connector body together with a shell box;

FIG. 8 is a side view of a section thereof on line C C through FIG. 7,looking from the right of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a side view of a mate pin, able to mate with the bushingabove;

FIG. 10 is a side view of the whole connector assembly with a lockingbolt in open position; and

FIG. 11 is a side view of a locking bolt end with a spring-loaded knobrod, housed :in a handle.

FIG. 12 is a view of the latch device of the connector.

In FIG. 1 the plastic housing 3 of a connector body 1 has a centralcavity, filled by a grounding mate bushing 2, further two counter-sunkopenings 4 with through holes 5 for two screws 6, screwing into aterminal cover 7, see FIG. 2. Shown by dashed lines in FIG. ,1, cavities8 under the mating wall 9 house brushes 10 with a terminal binding screw11. The cavities 8 and the brushes in them can be entered throughperipherally arrayed slots12. These slots are made for straight andround prong blades. Blanks from brass, bronze or copper band are pressformed into brushes and prongs. The blades 31 in FIG. 4 have straightmating faces. If the slots 12 are molded for the round blade of FIG. I,then slots and brush entrances follow the outlines of the blade.Electric barriers 14 between the cavities 8 prevent flashovers. Thebrass mate means is here a bushing 15. One finds out by relativerotation of the bases that prong blades and body slots match in only oneposition, that of FIGS. 1 and 4. Other means have to guard againstmating of bases for different voltage or current rating.

One such means is a stepped bore in the mate bushing. The step 16 mayvary in depth to distinguish the various electric ratings and groundfrom non-ground ing. This step 16 has to match with that of mate pin 17in FIG. 5, to allow the cap 21 to mate with the body 1.

The bushing 15 has a binding screw for a ground wire. The two mate meanshave the same hexagonal middle part 19, which, seated in a recess 19',holds back the mate means from riding up in direction of the terminalcover 7. A matemeans cannot ride out the opposite way, as it sticksthrough the center hole of a wiring pan 20 and is riveted to the insideof the pan by an eyelet rivet 20'.

The plastic terminal cover 7 of FIGS. 2 and 3 admits through an opening22 a cord 47, see FIG. 10. An electrician ties down the cord wires underthe proper binding screws. Then he attaches the terminal cover to thebody housing 3 by screws 6 and'tightens the grips 23 by screws 24,makingthe screws slide toward each other until they take a firm hold aroundthe cord. New in cover 7 is the locking bolt25 with locking arms 26; thebolt is held captive in a lengthwise through hole 28 of the body 1.While connector body and cap mate with their covers attached, thelocking bolt enters a lengthwise key groove 27 of cap and cover. In FIG.10, the locking bolt 25 is then pushed until its locking arms 26 oneither end can be turned from their open position 26 to the closedposition 26, see FIG. 3. To the locking arms may be added convenienthandles 29 and little knobs 30, as seen in FIG. 11, that fall intomatching catches 46 on the cover surface when the connector is locked.After unlocking the bases are pulled apart by the cords 47 in directionof the arrows in FIG. 6; no twist is necessary. Straight separation isalways easier, even if some damage had been done to the contacts by longservice. Twist lock connectors need here a twist and a straight pull,which requires a much clearer path for the prongs between the brushes.

The connector cap 21 is drawn in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. In recesses of theplastic housing 36, bushings 38 with hexagonal bottom and cylindricaltop have a threaded top hole. By an eyelet rivet each bushing isfastened to a flat, pierced prong base 37 The latter sits deeply in thehousing terminal side, to avoid short circuits. Into the threaded topholes screw binding screws 11.

The mate pin 17 of FIG. 5 has a step with diameters that are above andbelow the diameter of an ordinary mate pin 17, seen in FIG. 9. This barsthe mate pin from entering fully into the ordinary mate bushing of FIG.8. The mating of pin 17 with bushing 15 stops midway, too, as beyondstep 16 the channel is too narrow for pin 17'. In both cases the prongsdo not even reach the bushes. Moreover, the step 16 could be laid outfor lesser depths than shown, to further tell apart connectors ofdivergent rating. The mate means in body and cap may be transposed tomark different amperage at the same voltage. Doing no harm, the buttingof identical mate means will warn against inadequate fuse protection forthe load connected.

A shell box 32 of soft drawing brass is outlined in 7 FIGS. 5,7 and 8with pierced earlobe-type lugs 33 extending from the shell lift 34radially towards the shell center. These lugs need matching places 35 onthe mating side of a cap and on the terminal side of a body to rest on.These places, chosen to make the two shells alike, can be molded in byan exchangeable molding insert. Dash-dot lines mark the lugs 33 and therivets 39 that fasten the shell 32 to the cap housing 36, using countersink 4' on the terminal side. Thus, an inlet or receptacle with prongsis formed in which a connector body can mate.

A ground connection between mate means and metal equipment can be madeas shown in FIG. 6. A lead strip 40 is at one end pressed under thewiring pan 20, at the other end held in a counter sunk hole 4' under arivet head, which connects through its rivet 39 with shell 32 that istied down to the equipment metal.

In FIGS. 7 and 8 the connector body 1 of FIGS. 1 and 2 has beenconverted into a two pole body 1', usable as a wall receptacle. Afterremoving a molding insert, a lid 41 can be molded on, closing the thirdcavity, as shown by dashdot lines in FIG. 7. The same may be done to thecap and, if there is no grounding, to the central cavities. A shell box32 is'seen here with mounting lugs 42 apart by 180. Yet, experience hasborne out that screws or rivets, spread at any angle over 120 aresufficient for the support of housing or cover. In FIG. 2, where noshell is needed, the gap of the rest place 33 is filled by a fiberwasher 43 of the screw 6.

In FIG. 11 an end of the locking bolt 25 contains a spring loaded knobrod 44, seated in a handle 29. A spring 45 assures pressing of the knob30 into a catch 46 in the end face of the connector until the lockingarm 26 is turned away from the catch. If the cords 47 are clamped downon the equipment and no covers are desired, a shorter locking bolt maylock only body and cap together, with the lockingarms swivelling overthe outermost end faces of connector body and cap after their mating.The knobs will fall into catches 46 there, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 indotted lines and in FIG. 11. r

If made from a high impact plastic, the housings of the bases could beprovided'at their mating ends with the locking device of FIG. 12. Onebase has a plastic snapon prong 48 with a knob 49, the opposite base hasa matching catch 50 with a catch hole 51 molded into the rim 52.

I claim: 1. A universal electric connector, comprising a cap base and abody base, each of which is formed with at least two cavities, one setof prong contacts with their terminals housed in the correspondingcavities of the cap base and one set of brush contacts with theirterminals housed in the corresponding cavities of the body base, thebases having on their cooperating end faces entrance slots which extendto the cavities, said slots arranged on a peripheral circle of each ofsaid faces at such unequal spacings That said bases are polarized withrespect to each other, to allow mating of said contacts' in one positiononly, a mating pin attached to one base and a cooperating bushingrecessed in the other base to reinforce the polarized connectorstructure, and a locking bolt having at each end a means for pivotingsaid bolt and a latch means, said bolt being attached to one of saidbases by being housed in a through hole parallel to the connector axis,the other said base being formed with an open key groove for insertionof a part length,of the bolt, and latch means on the outer end faces ofthe bases to cooperate with the latch means on said bolt.

2. Connector as set forth in claim 1, in which the latch means is aspring loaded rod guided in said handle of the locking bolt and bearinga knob that sticks out at the end of this handle to cooperate with acatch formed in the nonmating end face of the connector.

3. Connector as set forth in claim 1, in which the bases are shaped witha shouldered recess penetrating them; the mate means pin. and bushingformed with a thin prolongation are received by the shouldered recessfrom the mating base end and protrude beyond the recess where they arefastened to a terminal; and bushing and pin are stepped at differentdepth for a different voltage rating.

1. A universal electric connector, comprising a cap base and a bodybase, each of which is formed with at least two cavities, one set ofprong contacts with their terminals housed in the corresponding caviTiesof the cap base and one set of brush contacts with their terminalshoused in the corresponding cavities of the body base, the bases havingon their cooperating end faces entrance slots which extend to thecavities, said slots arranged on a peripheral circle of each of saidfaces at such unequal spacings That said bases are polarized withrespect to each other, to allow mating of said contacts in one positiononly, a mating pin attached to one base and a cooperating bushingrecessed in the other base to reinforce the polarized connectorstructure, and a locking bolt having at each end a means for pivotingsaid bolt and a latch means, said bolt being attached to one of saidbases by being housed in a through hole parallel to the connector axis,the other said base being formed with an open key groove for insertionof a part length of the bolt, and latch means on the outer end faces ofthe bases to cooperate with the latch means on said bolt.
 2. Connectoras set forth in claim 1, in which the latch means is a spring loaded rodguided in said handle of the locking bolt and bearing a knob that sticksout at the end of this handle to cooperate with a catch formed in thenon- mating end face of the connector.
 3. Connector as set forth inclaim 1, in which the bases are shaped with a shouldered recesspenetrating them; the mate means pin and bushing formed with a thinprolongation are received by the shouldered recess from the mating baseend and protrude beyond the recess where they are fastened to aterminal; and bushing and pin are stepped at different depth for adifferent voltage rating.